Velez: Whole Foods was the only grocer to respond to early pitches
Alejandro "Alex" Velez · How to Get Your Product in 10,000 Retail Stores - Hustle Con 2015 · May 13, 2015 · at 3:46
Back to the Roots co-founder Alex Velez recounts cold-pitching their urban-farmed mushrooms grown on coffee grounds to Bay Area retailers in 2009.
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“We took that same bucket, walked it into every single grocery store in like a 50 mile radius from Andronico's, every Andronico's in Berkeley and Oakland. We went to Farmer Joe's. We went to Berkeley Bowl. At the time, there was only one Berkeley Bowl. We walked, walked to Rainbow Grocery. We walked to all these other grocery stores, and craziest thing is the only retailer that actually reached back out to us was Whole Foods.”
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